What is Cloud Computing?

From a user’s perspective, cloud computing is something most of us use every day. By definition it is accessing hardware and software through a service delivered over a network such as the Internet. Ordering a book online, doing research on the Internet with a browser-based search engine, and transferring funds from one account to another using online banking are examples of cloud computing. Within a business, cloud computing can include services such as accessing remotely-hosted accounting software and video conferencing while collaboratively editing a shared document.

From the IT manager’s perspective, cloud computing is the infrastructure (hardware and software), the platform, and the applications that work together to deliver the user’s experience.

The Promise and the Challenge for IT

Cloud computing holds the promise of helping organizations and their IT departments be more agile, efficient, and able to cost-effectively deliver new services that enable their businesses to thrive. At the same time, IT departments must deliver cloud services to many types of clients (PCs, laptops, mobile devices, and so forth) with the expectation of high security, performance, and ease in management. We believe that it is essential for cloud architectures to incorporate clients (be “client aware”) if they are to deliver on these expectations—and provide the user experience and the IT flexibility needed for a successful cloud environment.

IT Cloud Computing Definitions

Public cloud: The IT services—including software services, developer platform services, or infrastructure services—that are delivered to an organization (or to the public) over the Internet via a cloud service provider.

Private cloud: A data center, often virtualized, that sits behind an organization’s firewall and is designed to deliver “IT as a service” to internal users.